Six years ago I imported Lunar Genesis. I think I actually completed it in Japanese before the North American release. And by the time I got that I was more than a little burned out, and never got past the Sungrid Bridge in my NA game. So I missed out on some interesting story discussions and the like.

Two months ago I broke my arm and found myself with a lot of time on my hands. Once I was able to type again, I decided that now was the time to get back to this, prompted in part by my reading through a bunch of the longer posts here about backstory and the like. In particular, I wanted to do a playthrough without the significant handicaps I suffered the first time:

- not understanding the details of what was going on (I knew the basic story and major scenes, but had to figure out things like looking for the stupid Stone Flower or getting honey for Leoncavallo myself)- likewise, missing details like what some of the weapons and armor did that would have helped, like Flora's multishot bows- agonizingly slow battles (the use of L and R to speed these up was added to the NA and EU releases)- noise of public transport triggering many instances of unintentional running from battles- being in the first wave of players, so no help on things like what equipment for sale in the current town is also located in the next dungeon- not using the cards until the last dungeon because I didn't know that they were multi-use or what they would do- having only vague ideas of what sundries were being dropped by what and what jobs to take- having to save after every single battle that didn't get something broken in it, since I didn't know what was doing the breaking or how to prevent it

And so on. Whereas now there are a lot more resources available -- not just things like monster card lists, but having the (Japanese) strategy guide, having various threads here for reference, and having time.

So, that's what I've been doing. I decided to play the European version (this being one of two games I own in three regions), which is identical to the NA one except for the name, title screen, and publisher splash screen. As of tonight I'm about to go back to the Blue Dragon Cave for the Stone Flower. Here are some stats:

"Just as you touch the energy of every life form you meet, so, too, will will their energy strengthen you. Fail to live up to your potential, and you will never win. " --- The Old Man at the End of Time

Shiroryuu wrote:What's more, I see the recognized names, such as Jean and Lucia

Way back when this came out there was a lot of Lucia speculation. Game Arts (or whoever was responsible for the story in this game) always firmly said that they didn't intend for a connection between the two characters. Apparently, the character had a completely different name in Japanese that was Romanized the same way. Kizyr and Alunissage can probably get more into the specifics.

What I really despised about this game was the courier missions. I think I did about two of them and then didn't do any after that (which made getting money really hard, but it was worth it).

Shiroryuu wrote:And what do you mean that the gameplay that killed this game? :S

Gameplay goofs for me.1)Losing HP when you run.2)The 1000 time my stuff was stolen or broken.3)Having to pick ...Do I want EX,or items.(and if I picked Items the 100+ kills I needed to make to get the one item I needed.)4)The slow battles.(This is my own stupidness for I didn't know about the holding L+R to speed em up my first play thu.)5)AND THE BIGGEST......Not being able to pick my TARGET!!!!! >:(

plus little things like poorly translated script and overall rushed feel the game had

Other then making a new thread I'm just going to post in this one. Every year I roll the dice and replay a lunar title. With the 100+ remakes of lunar TSS I tend to get one oaf them. But Dragon Song won the roll this year. Tying to replay it thu "new eyes" pretending that I've never played it and ignoring the other titles. With that said I still have the same gripes I had in my earilier post, but I do seem to be enjoying it more this time. I think why I hated it so much earlier was cuz I had waited for so long for a new lunar title that I got REALLY mad when a terribly flawed game was what we got. It drowned any hope in my heart of ever seeing a true Lunar3. With that said I am enjoying it more this time but I hope it will not be the game Lunar goes out on.

I'll be interested in seeing what you think. For some reason -- probably relating to my arm healing enough for me to go back to work -- I never did finish this playthrough that I started three years ago. But I wouldn't mind digging out my notes and reviewing things and maybe even getting back to finishing the game.

S.ninja wrote:I think why I hated it so much earlier was cuz I had waited for so long for a new lunar title that I got REALLY mad when a terribly flawed game was what we got. It drowned any hope in my heart of ever seeing a true Lunar3. With that said I am enjoying it more this time but I hope it will not be the game Lunar goes out on.

That makes a lot of sense. It was... a lot less crappy the third time I played it. Mind you, it was still bad, just not as bad.

The first time I played it, it was the Japanese version, and I was just happy to get another Lunar game. The second time was the US version, the glow was gone, and all the awful qualities were hard to escape. The third time I used cards throughout to speed through battles, and completely ignored fetch quests, thus removing two of the worst aspects of the game. KF

Ok sorry it took so long to repost. I lost the internet. Well I finished the gam and while I'll still stand by the things I listed as to why the game was bad I can say I did enjoy my play through. I love the cast, but this play I couldn't help but note that for the most part the plot was the same as TSS. Don't want to post spoilers but it is easy to see where the villian of TSS got his plan from, cuz he did the same thing...only better.